Mustang Related (not Fox)

[LarsD]

I figured I'd post here since you guys know me better and there isn't much traffic in the 1st gen side of the forums. I was out poking around on my wife's 67 today. Decided to pull the "battery box" (code for a chunk of sheet metal shaped like an L). Found rot in the core support and inner fender. I'm not terribly surprised as this is a problem area for 1st gen Mustangs, plus the hackneyed battery box kind tipped me off. Good news is once I removed the monstrosity of a battery holder I found I could fit the spare aluminum radiator I had into the car to replace the corroded to bits brass rad that was in it.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Yea you on the cooling system upgrade, too bad you have to expose such an ugly wart to do it.

 

[mikestang63]

I feel your pain. My first Mustang in 1979 was a 67 fastback that thanks to the northeast winters and salting of roads, I ended up replacing the entire front clip, rear quarters, trunk., floor boards, and doors. That was before everyone started making repop panels so I bought a donor car, cut it all out and, and welded it all in. The good thing was the donor car had a blown 428, good C6 and 9" rear with 4.11's which also made it's way into the 67. I had the same motor as you 289 4 barrel .....

You should be able to buy a patch panel and repair that fairly easy. I can't see it in the picture but what do your shock towers look like? That's the trouble spot on these cars.

 

[Husky44]

Relatively easy repair, as stated above. I didn't know the battery tray was in the way for a aluminum radiator swap; I never put mine back in the 67, as I'm doing a battery relocate anyway. I did order the full SVE aluminum radiator kit for the Fox body, got a great deal for radiator, hoses, catch can... Only thing that won't work on my 67 (5.0 from a 91 LX swapped in) is the heater hoses. Amazing how much stuff is almost direct fit from the Fox body onto the first gen cars.

 

[LarsD]

The shock towers and frame look to be in good shape fortunately. Unfortunately I can't afford the space to pull the front of the car apart to fix it right now. I'll have to cobble it back together in the mean time to I can move it around under it's own power. Hopefully I'll get a garage built next year so I will have the space to rip this one apart.

 

[LarsD]

Yea you on the cooling system upgrade, too bad you have to expose such an ugly wart to do it.

Yeah one of the previous owners apparently liked to run straight water in the cooling system so the rad is ruined. I have that aluminum one as a spare from when I was running a big block in my Mopar and it seems to just fit. I also have a fairly new Fox body rad I can try to run if necessary.

 

[mikestang63]

From what I remember, the front suspension on those early mustangs were terrible as well. Trying to keep them aligned was always an issue, and the upper control arm bushings squeaked like a bitch.

 

[madspeed]

my first was a 69, and it was always in the shop trying to realign the front end. Had those stupid eccentric bolts that held the a arms, they could never be tight enough. Add the weakend frame rails and shock towers due to typical rust and you can see the disaster!